Building elements with concealable connecting means and extracting means therefor



Jul"? 1970 R. SCHMIDLIN ,5 6,

BUILDING ELEMENTS WITH CONCEALABLE CONNECTING MEANS AND EXTRACTING MEANS THEREFOR Filed Feb. 27,. 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR Rc' hard Schmidlin ECTING MEANS AND R R. SCHMIDLIN BUILDING ELEMENTS WITH CONCEALABLE CONN EXTRACTING MEANS THEREFO Filed Feb. 27. 1967 FIG. 5

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INVENTQR Remhard Schm|dhn avg; 7'

United States Patent 3,516,194 BUILDING ELEMENTS WITH CONCEALABLE CONNECTING MEANS AND EXTRACTING MEANS THEREFOR Reinhard Schmidlin, 3125 Toifen, Switzerland Filed Feb. 27, 1967, Ser. No. 618,735 Claims priority, application S/vgigzerland, Feb. 28, 1966,

2,8 Int. Cl. A63h 33/10 US. Cl. 46-26 12 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A building set having building elements with dovetail grooves at their surfaces for interconnection of building elements such as blocks and wheels by means of connecting slides inserted into grooves between building elements. A tool or one of the slides themselves serves as means for extracting connecting slides from said grooves.

This invention relates to a building set comprising building elements having grooves widening inwardly, for instance dovetail grooves on at least one surface, connecting elements adapted to be inserted into grooves of contacting surfaces of adjacent building elements for interconnecting such elements, and at least one coupling portion on each of said connecting elements allowing coupling of the connecting element completely inserted into grooves between adjacent building elements with another part.

One advantage of this building set resides in the fact that building elements for instance of parallelepipedic form may be provided with dovetail grooves of relatively fiat cross section on all surfaces so that such building elements may be assembled in any desired relative position and may be locked against relative displacement in this position by insertion of connecting elements into grooves crossing each other at right angles. However, the difficulty arises with such a building set that the connecting elements must completely be inserted between contacting surfaces of building elements, because further building elements may only be added to any existing structure consisting of a number of building elements when no connecting elements project from the existing structure. Even without this necessity, the connecting elements may be fully inserted unintentionally, particularly by children, when the building set is used as a toy. Therefore, care must be taken that connecting elements completely inserted into dovetail grooves between adjacent building elements may be retracted again. Without this possibility it would be impossible to separate building elements assembled by connecting elements inserted in two directions at right angles without destruction of parts of the building elements or connecting elements. In the building set according to the present invention the connecting elements may be retracted from any position between building elements and therefore separation of assembled building elements is always possible.

The invention will now be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein FIG. 1 is a perspective view of two building elements connected to each other,

FIG. 2 is a view of a connecting element with a tool coupled therewith on a larger scale,

FIG. 3 shows a connecting element inserted between building elements in front view,

FIG. 4 shows a pair of wheels in axial section,

FIG. 5 is a side view of thepair of wheels shown in FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a section along line VI-VI in FIG. 5 and FIG. 7 shows a modified embodiment of a wheel.

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FIG. 1 illustrates two building blocks or stones having the shape of bricks. These blocks are hollow and preferably made of plastics material. The side surfaces of the blocks are provided with dovetail grooves 2 and 3 of fiat cross section, grooves 2 extending in longitudinal direction of the blocks and grooves 3 extending in circumferential direction at right angles to the grooves 2. The cross section of these grooves is shown on a larger scale in FIG. 3. The end surfaces of the blocks 1 have each one dovetail groove 4, but further grooves crossing grooves 4 may be provided on these surfaces preferably extending between grooves 2.

For assemblage the blocks are so superposed that some grooves are covering each other, whereafter, flat means for positively connecting the blocks in the form of stripshaped connecting slides 5 having two V-grooves 6 at oppo-site sides are inserted into canals formed by two adjacent grooves. The connecting slides 5 engage the dovetail grooves of the blocks 1 practically without clearance so that a connection of high strength is formed between adjacent blocks. By insertion of connecting slides 5 into grooves 2 and 3 crossing each other at right angles, as illustrated on the left in FIG. 1, the blocks 1 are so connected to each other that relative displacement in all directions is prevented.

In order to have free access to any surface of the assembly of two blocks 1 shown in FIG. 1 for addition of further building elements, the connecting slides 5 must fully be inserted between adjacent surfaces of the blocks 1 so that it is impossible to subsequently remove such slides by hand. It is impossible to obtain access to the slides by relative shifting of the building blocks 1 when the slides are inserted in both directions as shown in FIG. 1. For these reasons means must be provided allowing subsequent removal of fully inserted connecting slides 5. For this purpose the connecting slides have hooks 7 at each end as shown in FIG. 2. The tool equally shown in FIG. 2 having a hook 8 and a ring-shaped handle 9 is so designed that its hook may be inserted at the side of the one hook 7 of the connecting element into the canal formed by two dovetail grooves and may be coupled with the hook of the connecting element as shown in FIG. 2. The slight inclination of the coupling surfaces of the hooks of the connecting slide 5 and of the tool serves for maintaining the hooks in coupled condition during extraction of a connecting slide.

The hooks 7 of each connecting element are preferably made in complementary form. When the slides are cut from an extruded tape of plastics material, two hooks of succeeding slides may be formed and a hook may be separated from the tape with one single cut and with practically no loss of material. Preferably the hooks 7 may be located completely at one side of the centre line of the connecting slide so that a slide completely inserted be tween superposed building elements may be coupled with the hook of another connecting slide and extracted when the tool is not available or lost.

Another coupling element may be provided instead of a hook 7. As an example, a T-shaped coupling element may be disposed symmetrical to the longitudinal axis of the connecting slide so that the hook of the extracting tool may be inserted at the one or other side of the coupling element as desired. Further, the connecting elements may have two symmetrical hooks separated by a T-shaped recess, the hooks being disposed at such a distance from each other that it is possible to insert the tool into said T-shaped recess and to couple it with the one or other hook. When connecting slides of greater thickness are used, such slides may be equipped with a coupling head or with a threaded bore for coupling them with an extracting screw.

The building set may include a high number of elements other than those illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, whereby it is not necessary that all elements have grooves crossing each other. Particularly small elements may be equipped with one groove only. The building set may also include any number of auxiliary elements or devices having a base plate substantially corresponding to a slide 5, such auxiliary devices and elements being adapted to be assembled with a building element by insertion of the base plate into a dovetail groove. For practical reasons it is preferable to provide coupling hooks or other coupling elements at each end of the connecting slides, but the invention also includes connecting slides having one coupling element only.

Some of the above auxiliary elements and equipments are illustrated, by way of example, in FIGS. 4 to 7. The pair of wheels shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 comprises two similar wheels 10 contacting each other with plane faces. A dovetail groove 11 is provided in said plane face of each wheel, and connecting slides 12 shorter than slides and having only one coupling hook 7 are inserted into said grooves for assemblage of the wheels. Each of wheels has a bevel toothing at its rim, the smaller diameter of this bevel toothing being adjacent the said plane face of the wheel. When two wheels are assembled as illustrated the bevel toothings of both wheels define a V-shaped groove serving for insertion of a tire or a transmission belt. Separate wheels 10 may be used for forming gear transmissions with their toothing engaging the toothing of one or more other wheels. Each wheel 10 has holes 14 for fixing other parts.

A shaft 16 may be inserted into the bore of the hubs of wheels 10, this shaft having grooves 17 and 17a for insertion of split spring ring or Seger ring 18. When a single wheel is mounted on the shaft the ring 18 is inserted into the groove 17a. The shaft is made in one piece with a connecting slide or base plate 19 shown in section in the lower part and in side view in the upper part of FIG. 4. This slide has a dovetail cross section and may thus be inserted into a dovetail groove of any other element of the set, for instance into a groove 3 of block 1 as shown in FIG. 1. The connecting slide 19 has a nose 20 at its one end, this nose abutting against the one side of block 1 for blocking the slide 19 and shaft 16 against upward displacement along groove 2.

The wheel illustrated in FIG. 7 only differs from the wheel shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 in that it has no toothing 13 and it has two grooves 11 crossing each other at right angles. While the shaft 16 has to be inserted into the bores of hubs 15 for locking the wheels 10 of FIGS. 4-6 against relative displacement in the direction of the longitudinal extension of grooves 11, a pair of wheels of the type shown in FIG. 7 may be locked against relative displacement in any direction without a shaft 16 by insertion of connecting slides in mutually perpendicular directions. Of course the wheels 10 shown in FIGS. 4-6 may also be provided with two perpendicular grooves 11.

What is claimed:

1. A building set comprising building elements having grooves widening inwardly on at least one surface, means for positively connecting said building elements including connecting elements having a cross section corresponding to that of two adjacent superposed ones of said grooves adapted to be inserted completely into said superposed grooves of contacting surfaces of adjacent building ele: ments, a coupling portion at least at one end of each of said connecting elements, and extracting means having a part adapted to be inserted into said superposed grooves of adjacent building elements and thereafter to be coupled with the coupling portion of a connecting element com pletely inserted into said grooves between adjacent building elements for extraction of said connecting element.

2. A building set as claimed in claim 1, wherein said connecting elements have one of said coupling portions at each end thereof.

3. A building set as claimed in claim 1, said extracting means comprising an extracting tool adapted to be coupled with the coupling portion of a connecting element.

4. A building set as claimed in claim 3, wherein said coupling portion is a hook of which the free end is laterally spaced from at least one side of the remaining portion of the connecting element.

5. A building set as claimed in claim 4, wherein said tool has a hook adapted to be inserted at the side of the hook of a connecting element located between building elements.

6. A building set as claimed in claim 4, wherein the v hook of the connecting element is located at one side of a longitudinal symmetry line of the connecting element, such, that the hook of a connecting element inserted between building elements may be connected With the hook of another connecting element for being extracted.

7. A building set as claimed in claim 4, with said connecting elements cut from a profiled strip, and having said hooks of complementary form at each end thereof.

8. A building set as claimed in claim 1, some of said elements comprising wheels, each said wheel having a hub portion and at least one plane face, at least one said groove being formed in said face such that pairs of wheels may be interconnected :by means of said connecting elements.

9. A building set as claimed in claim 8, wherein at least one of said wheels has a bevel toothing at its rim, said bevel toothing having its side of smaller diameter adjacent said plane face of the wheel.

10. A building set as claimed in claim 8, said wheels having at least said one groove extending along a diameter of the wheel.

11. A building set as claimed in claim 8, comprising a wheel shaft assembled with a connecting slide adapted for insertion into a groove of one of said building elements, said shaft having two grooves adapted to receive a locking member for axially locking one wheel or a pair of said interconnected wheels respectively on said wheel shaft.

12. A building set comprising building elements having dovetail grooves crossing each other at right angles on at least one surface, connecting elements having a doubledovetail cross section corresponding to the cross section of two adjacent superposed ones of said grooves, said connecting elements :being adapted for insertion fully into said superposed grooves of adjacent building elements, at least one hook-shaped extracting portion at least at one end of each of said connecting elements, said hook-shaped extracting portion having a cross section smaller than the said cross section of the connecting elements and said two adjacent superposed grooves respectively such that a free passage is left at the side of said hook when the connecting element is completely inserted into said adjacent superposed grooves, and extracting means including an extracting hook adapted for insertion into said two adjacent superposed grooves and through said free passage for engagement of said extracting hook with the extracting portion of a connecting element fully inserted into adjacent grooves.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,163,851 12/1915 Pringle 4629 1,357,012 10/ 1920 Tweto 29247 1,490,775 4/ 1924 Hemmerly 29-247 XR 1,898,297 2/1933 Fox 4626 XR 2,202,956 6/1940 Lee 46-26 XR 2,410,409 11/ 1946 Farmer 4623 2,609,638 9/1952 Lindenmeyer 4623 XR 3,076,286 2/ 1963 Czecholinski 46-19 3,195,266 7/ 1965 Onanian 4626 F. BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 4616, 23 

